Free Willy.

While the district he wants to represent was voting overwhelmingly for Trump, where was legislative challenger William Lockhart?

Hiding out with his establishment friends.

Lockhart, who has lived in the 47th district for less than a year and a half, sure found a curious way to try and build a political base in his new home. While the overwhelming majority of the people in the district were voting for Trump, Lockhart has pointedly refused to publicly endorse Trump as the party’s nominee.

Yep, a real profile in courage. But let’s cut William a little slack. Maybe he was forced to keep his mouth shut, since his financial backers were actively supporting more establishment-type candidates such as Bush and Rubio.

Maybe William was browbeat into silence because some of his biggest backers were those same establishment financiers running the effort to defeat Republican conservatives in the last primary. One of William’s biggest backers was an officer for the notorious Advance TN PAC – which tried to defeat conservatives so that the legislature attempt try and pass Obamacare expansion, Common Core and a gas tax. Hardly a great platform to run on, William.

Then came news that Lockhart was up to his eyeballs in the continuing scandal plaguing the state party where the wife of the political director was being paid to work for Lockhart in direct violation of party rules and by-laws. After public shaming, Lockhart was forced to fire the wife, but she says she quit.

Whatever.

Rocky Top says people should show some sympathy to young William. We should free William from his onerous debt to the establishment crony capitalist types.

Free William from his reliance on the party hacks that got us into the same kind of mess we see in Washington.

Free William so that he can find his own voice instead of parroting the politics of his establishment donors.